>I agree with you that people think genealogy should be free. The issue > was that what was free should remain free. Again, you are stretching it. The material remains free. It's still where it was. it was free last week. It is free today. it will be free next week. What you are paying for is not what's there, but how to get there. They were NOT charging for access to the data. Next question. > I think if people wish to subscribe to a service they should subscribe > to the one that works for them. I agree. But besides Ancestry.com, what is there? > It really does depend on where your > ancestors were and what they did as to which works best for you. > Someone wrote an article on that once -- if your ancestors did a, b > and c then X is the best service. If they did l, m and n then Y is the > best service. Do you recall that? Not really, but it makes no difference because there is reaally only one service with all the census records - which I use several times a day - plus a huge supply of vital records, cemetery records, old nuewspapers, war records, and on and on. > I do not chide people for paying for Ancestry. Actually what you do is chide Ancestry for charging for its services. <g> > I know you and Sandy think it is > gold. Sandy [a friend of Dick and I's] uses it so much she paid the > exorbitant fee to have internet on the ship! I do think it's gold - but I would never pay that price! Actually, for a one-name study it is really the cat's meow. I can get a query about a family I am not familar with and in a matter of hours I can pretty much nail down what line they are. All without leaving my chair and mostly on Ancestry, although there are other places. > Actually the right to obtain a patent to do whatever you want is not > in the constitution as you well know. I didn't say the right to do whatever you want is in the Constitution. What I said is that the right to obtain a patent is in the Constition. And I doubt any patent gives you the right to do what you want. > Ancestry is not impacting LDS. LDS is impacting Ancestry. That was my > point. You made it backwards. <g> Of course LDS is impacting Ancestry. I doubt, however, that the search engine patent will affect either of them that much. > Now I know you can continue this conversation forever but I think we > ought to wind it up before everyone's eyes glaze over. It's over. I already took one answer private and intended to do the same with this one, but thought it was of some general interest. Richard